Currently it’s the Soekris 2541 → LA90 Speaker Amp (replacing the Wells Audio Milo.) I like the Milo’s dynamics, but it was a lot mushier compared to the LA90. There was marked improvement on the technical front with the Topping, but the chain makes my Susvara come off still a bit dull to my tastes (pretty good with my other headphones like the LCD-5 and D8KP, though.) Another reason I went for the LA90 was desk space, so something like the Bakoon or Oor/Hypsos form-factor is what I’m eyeing at the moment.
Yeah you’re not getting anywhere close to optimal performance from your Susvara today.
The Enleum or Bakoon would get you much much closer and it actually works well with both the Sus and the 1266 if you end up getting it.
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I mean that’s sorta just what you do for a headphone you like lol, makes sense to have a chain optimized around it
Interestingly, the mysphere and d8kp. Reasons being is that the mysphere outdoes the overall space sense of the 1266 that was one of the selling points, and is much much much better in the midrange while still being fantastic in the bass and treble. It can’t touch the subbass slam and impact but bass impact is still surprisingly good, and imo the bigger thing to me is that it’s much more dynamic and resolving there where the increased bass info, texture, and dynamics make it a whole lot more enjoyable for me. The d8kp takes more of it’s role tonally, but also in bass not in quantity and slam but in it’s really impressive shape and texture to the low end that makes the 1266’s bass sound one dimensional and flat. I don’t think either of them really go for the same thing, but somehow fill a similar role for me better. I think my overall preferences have shifted toward quality rather than quantity when it comes to bass in recent years which probably was one of the reasons I got increasingly unsatisfied with it
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This kind of summarizes a lot of why I now own only three headphones - Susvara, D8KPLE and Mysphere
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Haha fair enough. I think I just got blown by 1266 and still haven’t recovered from it, plus every time I put them on and grab a beer, I get transported to a dive bar with a live band blasting metal so I guess its more of an emotional connection 
But very curious about the mysphere now, hopefully I’ll be able to try one on at CanJam.
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You can try mine
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You’re too kind I had briefly looked at them before and my understanding was that they are some sort of evolution of AKG K1000. I wonder how they do with DNA amps (given that Donald labels one of the jacks K1000). I am finally getting the demo Stratus next week so that would be an interesting pairing to try.
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I’d just keep in mind with the DNA you’re going to want to try a 3.1 rather than a 3.2, and I’d also make sure it’s running a tighter rectifier if possible
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I don’t think it’s even the best technical Planar Magnetic.
Detail is more in your face on the 1266, because the treble comes across compressed, but IMO on the right Amp/DAC, the Susvara is actually more resolving and has better overall technicalities.
The MySphere’s get surprisingly close in resolution, and arguably scale better than even the Susvara.
The 1266 isn’t miles away by any stretch and arguably the Raal CA-1A is in the same ballpark as both of them for resolution, though it’s a step back in some other areas.
I personally own a 1266 and it’s my 4th or 5th favorite flagship at this point. I find when I do pull it out I get the initial wow I’d forgotten about the sub bass on this followed way to quickly by annoyance with the treble presentation.
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The additional Bass bails out a lot of badly recorded 80s and 90’s Metal aswell.
I just find the treble presentation (not the quantity) annoys me enough I it offsets that win, but I’m probably overly sensitive to it, or just hear it differently to some other people.
Really nice discussion here, this is one aspect of many which make this hobby so complex.
When you add EQ to the equation then you start comparing apples to oranges.
My experience with the 1266, regardless of the chain, will always be different from those who dont use EQ, the wonky mids for example was never an issue for me.
I do want to audition the Susvara in a good chain some day, a friend told me all i need is a speaker amp with tons of power to make it really shine if i dont want to spend too much on a high end headphone amp, maybe i will try that.
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I honestly don’t find FR wise the 1266 to be too bad or even really need eq, however eq I could see help those that find the fr to be wonky. My personal gripe with the mids more relates on the intangible side that imo isn’t really improved by eq so I don’t really have a different opinion of it with or without. Then again there’s very few cans that I think I have a fairly different opinion of them with vs without eq
Not really from my experience, there’s a lot more that goes into making the susvara work well in a chain imo, it’s quite a hassle and an expensive one, I’d really rather suggest someone try a 1000se first and go from there, much easier to bring closer to potential and requires a decent bit less investment than does the susvara
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This fundamentally IMO is the issue with the Susvara, you either commit to it and cut out a LOT of otherwise fantastic gear, or you go in another direction.
Comparing headphones to each other is a bit of a fools errand, they don’t exist in isolation, it’s not MySphere vs Susvara, it’s MySphere on EC Studio T vs Susvara on WA33, or whatever chain you happen to be using with whatever headphone.
And as much of the overall experience is coming from the rest of the chain as the headphone.
You are so restricted in amp choices if you want to drive the Susvara well, for most people you pretty much have to choose to compromise for the Susvara, or compromise for everything else. Or just own multiple Kilobuck amps, which is a none starter for most.
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Best you can do is compare on the same chain which may or may not be fair to either headphone, or try and compare under the assumption they’d be on an equally good chain within a similar range which is difficult and brings a lot more things into consideration. But I’d say they can still be helpful despite that as long as there’s adequate context and info around said comparison
I wouldn’t agree fully, as you can get amps that work about equally well with a range of cans (not a large range though), but you really have to push the price for that, and you’re still going to end up focusing the susvara over others, but I don’t think you always have to drop everything else for them.
As an example, I think something like an AIC 10 does quite a lot of high end cans well, Susvara, 1266, MS3.2, Utopia, etc and does them while not totally equally well it’s pretty close where I wouldn’t feel like I was shorting any of the aforementioned cans with that single amp. That being said, you easily pay for that, and you likely could get a similar technical level for a bit less with other cans and other chains that were more centered around one specific chain/headphone combo. But that’s just kinda the nature of the higher end audio scene in general. Some others that I think give you a decent enough range of cans to play around with other totl cans while treating the susvara and those other cans somewhat equally well are the Viva Egoista 845 or AC Genus , potentially the Angstrom Stella HP
I do think the amps that really truly make the Susvara shine is somewhat limited, but I also think the same amps that do make the susvara shine can sometimes have equally good results on other cans alongside it, but some are more restricted/specialist as well such as the WA33EE, Oji Special BDI 44B GT, Trafomatic Primavera (sorta)
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Yes I agree, it’s useful to talk about the qualities of a headphone, distinct from it’s source.
But if your going to do that, you really need to give it it’s best chance to shine.
Utopia is a different headphone when it loves the source (DNA or EC for example), it’s certainly very good on say a WA33, but it’s not in the same ballpark there.
And I agree you have to provide context.
And back to the 1266, it’s a headphone I like (as I said I’d put it at 4 or 5 in my current list of owned headphones).
EQ is a perfectly valid thing to do if your goal is to correct Frequency Response, to me it’s not usually something that I care about.
The FR on the 1266 has never bothered me, the way it presents the treble does, and you can’t change that with EQ, I’ve discussed it before. It clearly doesn’t bother a lot of people, it bothers me.
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The big issue with those amps for me is not that they aren’t great with other cans, but that you cut out all the lower powered DHT’s, that really can be magical on some less demanding cans. Your just restricting your choices.
The other solution that’s currently popular on Head-Fi is to use a tube amp as a pre to a SS amp that will power the Susvara or 1266, I’m really not sold on that idea for a number of reasons.
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That’s very true, and yes you do put a cap on what you can use. That being said that’s true for most any high end can, and the moment you decide to commit to focus any single can your source pool will drop for what options you have. But yes the susvara does that more than others for sure. And that’s really one of the reasons why the susvara gets so pricey, you need both the quality and power, or just pure level of quality to override the lack of power sometimes, and that’s just really costly, whereas being able to take advantage of let’s say the lower power dht or even solid state designs can offer higher value with other cans that the susvara just can’t really take advantage of
Ehhhhhh yeah, that’s not a magic bullet, and imo would matter a lot more on the quality of pre and (now being used as) power amp a lot more than if a tube is in chain or not lol.
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I’m actually curious about this as I’m doing this right now. Partly because I got some of this advice from Head-Fi and partly because I just wanted to see how it will sound. I haven’t tried a lot of (or any) higher end SS amps as I was very turned off after the Jot2. I got the CFA3 for 1266 which is pretty good but still has some edge to it and adding the Studio B takes that off. It’s fairly subtle but I do notice addition of the typical 300B character to the sound which I like.
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I do think you can figure out nice combinations of amps and headphones even in the high end if you know what you’re chasing and not necessarily just “let’s try and make everything better” or emphasize the best of every pair.
For instance, when I had both the 1266 and the Susvara with the Enleum I felt like I’m getting good value out of both. It helped emphasize what the Sus was good at while it helped the TC be a little more balanced.
Another example of trying to do something similar now is with the Susvara and the D8000 Pro. They approach the mids differently enough that I think I can find some nice balance with less gear.
There are also examples of collections that can enjoy similar gear for different reasons - Utopia and D8K are a good one.
When you play with the TOTL options, and very much with the 1266, you just need to know what you’re trying to get out of it. I was chasing for a long time a way to create a single chain with no more than two headphones and get the most out of then. I learned the hard way it’s probably impossible without compromises. So I’m now evaluating what compromises I’m willing to make.
The TC for me just didn’t make sense any more. But for some other person and other chains and other headphones next to it it might be perfect
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I’ll just say a lot of the nice ss sound very different from a jot2 lol
Haven’t heard the CFA3 but given it’s a gilmore design I’m not surprised it has some edge and sharpness to it, and makes sense using the studio b would help take that off there. That being said, that’s a combo that could actually make sense in that they’re 2 amps that are presumably similar level, and if you have both already, why not lol.
I guess I get a little irritated when I see people suggesting some crappy tube amp/preamps in an otherwise nice chain (or even a mediocre one), assuming that just having tubes will make it so much better and not actually considering the quality of said tube pre/amp. A good preamp can be awesome regardless of if it has tubes or not, I just don’t like to see people put crappy ones in there that just end up being a bottleneck for the sake of “tubes” in the chain lol. Like a mediocre amp isn’t going to be suddenly made magical by a tube preamp, especially a cheap/lesser one lol.
At this point, all the setups I actually drive the susvara off of (which is basically one at this point lol) use a preamp + amp combo, that being said it’s because 1. I have to since it’s a pre + power amp and I need some sort of volume control, 2. are at a similar level as eachother, 3. have good synergy, and 4. I’m past the point of reason with that headphone’s chain. And with my EC Studio I bypass the volume in favor of a nicer pre as well (because I already have nicer pres, and because the volume control on the Studio is imo lacking for it’s performance class so there’s more advantage to bypassing it than others in a similar price point. It’s just that you have to make sure the preamp is at least of similar level as the amp preferably better to get a more noticeable impact, and have great synergy regardless of topology/technology.
Adding a preamp to a headphone chain can sometimes make sense, but imo a lot of the time, it’s really not as good of a value and you’d just be better off upgrading the amp, dac, digital source, hell even sometimes cabling instead. The preamp can only work with what it’s given on the source side, and you also need to make sure the amp can actually take advantage of what it can do as well lol. So I’d just be careful about buying a preamp solely for one single headphone chain, you want to make sure everything else is already up to snuff first and will actually match well, basically make sure if it actually makes sense to, or if that money would be better invested elsewhere in the chain for a more substantial improvement. Which is why personally I tend to to suggest adding a preamp to a headphone chain often lol, but that’s just me
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